There’s No Such Thing as Bad Publicity… Right?

Posted on by Steve Case
10

It’s been said that “any publicity is good publicity.” The corollary, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” is in good company with other variations. Some TV ads during the Super Bowl stretched that concept, perhaps to the breaking point.

Why the Super Bowl?

spacer The Super Bowl is perhaps unique in sports in that many people watching the game on TV don’t even like football. They actually ignore the game and focus on the commercials. Between the football lovers and the ad lovers, there is an enormous audience available to advertisers who are willing to spend an enormous amount of money to make a quick pitch. (This year, enormous money meant nearly $4 Million per ad.)

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media | Tagged GoDaddy, Super Bowl, Yuck Factor | 10 Replies

My First Ten Thousand Tweets

Posted on by Steve Case
6

It seems it wasn’t that long ago when I posted tweet number 1000. In fact, number 100, wasn’t that long ago. I opened my Twitter account (JoeBugBuster) in 2008, on September 11, but I hardy touched it for several years.

spacer Back then I followed very few people on Twitter, and very few followed me, but they were all people I knew personally. I prided myself that all my followers were “real people – no bots.” I’m still particular who I follow, but anyone is welcome to follow me – even bots and other computer programs. I used to just tweet with people I knew IRL (In Real Life), but now I chat with people across the country and around the world.

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Posted in Social Media | Tagged Twitter | 6 Replies

Marketing, Technology, and Social Media Predictions for 2013

Posted on by Steve Case
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Some things are easy to predict. Some are hard. I’ll try to include some of each kind.

spacer Just for the record, I’m not giving myself any credit for things that have already happened or been announced prior to the actual start of 2013. Of course some of those things certainly might give us a bit of a head start of figuring out what’s coming.

Here we go!

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media, Technology | Tagged cloud, fitness, privacy, XaaS | 7 Replies

If it Bleeds, It Leads: The Marketing of Trauma

Posted on by Steve Case
6

Years ago I recognized that TV news had become primarily entertainment.
For decades, editors have said that “If it Bleeds, It Leads,” meaning that the most traumatic story would lead the newscast (even if it wasn’t the most relevant to viewers). That is all the more true in this age of round-the-clock reporting on TV and online.

After seeing all of the media attention toward multiple-victim shootings, I was reminded that the media essentially rewards violence, perhaps to the point of encouraging impressionable people to “just do it”:

Clearly, to go out in a big way you should make a very public attack: The media will immortalize you.

— Steve Case (@JoeBugBuster) December 14, 2012

Those who don’t believe in an afterlife now have a way to be immortalized in this life. Continue reading

Posted in Marketing | Tagged gun control, media, Newtown, Sandy Hook Elementary School, shooting | 6 Replies

Why do Some Ads Make You Buy – and Others Turn You Away?

Posted on by Steve Case
2

Have you seen the commercial with the guy in the toll booth? The guy takes a sly look back and forth, pulls out an Almond Joy candy bar, and palm trees suddenly fill the booth. It’s a well-executed ad, but why does the “unwrap paradise” theme not work for me?

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Posted in Marketing | Tagged Almond Joy, candy, York Peppermint | 2 Replies

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and now Giving Tuesday

Posted on by Steve Case
2

You’ve finished the Thanksgiving leftovers, survived Black Friday, and your Cyber Monday purchases are on their way to you. What’s next?

Giving Tuesday!

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Posted in Marketing, Technology | Tagged Giving | 2 Replies